You can listen to the soundtrack here.
With its kuthu base and smattering of tamil among the lyrics, One Two Three Four is the song where Vishal Shekhar stay most sincere to the flavor of the region Chennai Express is purportedly set in. The arrangement however, merely follows hundreds of past songs in the genre rather than offer anything fresh. Amitabh Bhattacharya’s lyrics only make it worse. Hamsika Iyer, Vishal Dadlani and Sricharan’s exuberance helps, but only just. The combination of techno elements and lyrics in Ready Steady Po aren’t that great to begin with, and gets on your nerves as it progresses. The long lineup of Vishal Dadlani, Brodha V, Enkore, Natalie DiLuccio & Smokey pretty much wasted. The title song that marks SPB’s return to Bollywood (discounting that cameo in Bombay Talkies) sounds like a tribute to his yesteryear songs. And the man delivers as he used to, energy levels intact, assisted by Jonita Gandhi (her Bollywood debut I suppose).
It is the other half of the soundtrack that fares relatively better. Kashmir Tu Main Kanyakumari has the reliable Arijit Singh, Sunidhi Chauhan and Neeti Mohan doing their part nicely even as an interesting mix of strings and percussion forms a sprightly background. After Ankahee in Lootera, Amitabh Bhattacharya gets another breezy melody with Anusha Mani here, Tera Rastaa. Lovely arrangement; well sung. The best of the soundtrack is Titli, a hauntingly arranged melody (albeit mildy evocative of the composers’s past melodies) with a particularly brilliant incorporation of the kaapi-based Tamil devotional piece Kondal Vannanai. Star of the song though is Chinmayi who does a spectacular job along with Gopi Sunder (more famous down South as a composer mainly active in Kerala). Zoheb Khan & Phoenyx’s dubstep version of the song comes off as rather pointless. Equally unimpressive is the Chennai Express Mashup.
First Gippi. Now Chennai Express. Contrary to last year, 2013 doesn’t seem such a great year in Bollywood for Vishal Shekhar. Then again, Rohit Shetty movies aren’t exactly known for their musical brilliance.
Music Aloud Rating: 6.5/10
Top Recos: Titli, Tera Rastaa, Kashmir Tu
